The Pak premier obviously did not miss the opportunity to indict the Indian government’s ‘intransigence’ that disabled the UN Security Council in fulfilling ‘its pledge to the Kashmiri people,” said the prime minister, adding that over 72 years of illegal occupation of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) were a saga of brutalisation of the Kashmiris’.

King Khan adeptly uses the persisting discontentment among a large section of Indian people over the near annihilation of democracy and civil society in the Valley. Like the civil society in Pakistan, there’s agreement in the progressive echelons of India that the Kashmiri people have been denied their rights to life, food, health, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion since 5 August 2019.In addition, an unleashing of unprecedented state-sponsored terrorism and discriminatory steps against minorities, especially Muslims – a clear manifestation of the Hindutva ideology espoused by the Modi 2.0 regime and the Rashtriya Swayayamsevak Sangh – has now only intensified.

“Around 900,000 occupation forces have converted the region into the largest prison in the world. Post August 5, 2019, India has unleashed a new reign of terror in India-occupied Jammu & Kashmir, locking the region down and abusing human rights of the innocent people, especially women, children and the elderly, with impunity,” the Pakistani PM stated. But he was mum about partial relaxation of the Centre’s stringent and prolonged anti-democratic measures like blockage of internet (still ongoing except in government hospitals) and telecom networks (just BSNL SMS services have been restored, that too haltingly) although the semblance of a police state remains intact.

However, unlike Khan, some politicians want Islamabad to help the ‘secessionists’ on the Indian side of Kashmir, as India did during the liberation struggle in the erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971. The president of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Azad Jammu and Kashmir), Sardar Masood Khan, issued a call for the use of the “power of pen, computer and camera” in apprising the people abroad of the plight of Kashmiris. This he did in a congratulatory message to the newly-elected cabinet of Central Press Club Muzaffarabad. It ought to be one of the main tasks of the media to expose the goings-on in ‘Occupied Kashmir and India’.

“Our journalist fraternity has always kept the Kashmir liberation movement on top of their priorities, which is a matter of satisfaction. There is a dire need to make people realised through the media that India’s hatred does not only target citizens of Jammu and Kashmir but the whole of South Asia,” he stated.

But several seasoned diplomats of Pakistan’s identify deficit in foreign policy initiatives albeit implicitly and want Islamabad not to be obsessed with expressing solidarity with the ‘freedom struggle’ of the Kashmiris. The strategy adopted by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government to steer the country in a new direction of foreign policy ensuring proximity towards the Arab world and improved relations with the United States of America remains on paper.

Improvement in ties with USA remains unfulfilled, reflected in PM Khan’s half-hearted acceptance in acceding to the request of President Donald Trump to help efforts to reach a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, it must be said that the responsibility for failure lies with none other than the US President himself, whose arbitrary decision to suspend the talks with the Afghan insurgent group spoiled the prospects of the US-Taliban engagement, which had begun in September 2018. The expectation that the US-Taliban agreement be signed in September 2019 was bellied due to Trump. This delayed the process. As of the end of the year, the deal is still not there, but the decks have been cleared for the agreement, which would paved the way for withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

But Islamabad is in the eye of a developing storm. On the one side is the failure in Afghanistan with the PT-I government in an onlooker’s role, and on the other is protracted pressures from an assertive and dominant India that keeps blaming Pakistan for patronizing terrorism, although the latter pays dearly for nurturing terrorists discreetly. The terrorists are a hindrance to the gradual settling in of democracy in Pakistan. Thus Islamabad is locked in a battle against terrorism and extremism for stabilisation of economy necessary for building a favourable image abroad and setting up good relations with big powers. (IPA Service)